Hah. Those headrests look a lot like my setup now with the two Samsungs 10.1.

01-15-2012, 11:37 AM

Hdale85

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnmcgahey

At some point, we will have hard drives in cars that will store large amounts of data...I would like to see the ability to take a hard drive with all my copied DVD's and connect it to my in-car DVD player and have the ability to select from the list of movies on the hard drive and the DVD player would play the selected movie!

Think if you could insert a USB drive (64 gig) into a USB port and have access to 30 movies at anytime... this would be great... and safer than trying to find the dvd case, take out the old one, load it a new one, etc.

John McGahey

You're joking right? You can easily do that with a CarPC with either method you are talking about.....

Really? Hang a couple of tablets on the headrests?
That gets a big MEH from me.

01-16-2012, 04:55 PM

zr2ee

Quote:

Originally Posted by sebberry

Really? Hang a couple of tablets on the headrests?
That gets a big MEH from me.

i'm sure that is just a demonstration of the concept they are looking at for integrating infotainment into vehicles. if they ever do impliment this i doubt it will have you just attaching your tablet to the headrest

01-16-2012, 09:10 PM

RipplingHurst

I think tablets in the headrest works great, it may not be a technological breakthrough, but it works (= entertains the rear passengers better than the alternatives).

01-17-2012, 08:01 AM

johnmcgahey

No I'm not kidding! Thanks for the info and explain more on how this works.

01-17-2012, 11:16 AM

Hdale85

Well most of the community is here for the DIY CarPC stuff, and with that you should easily be able to plug in an external hard drive or thumb drive and have it load up whatever content is on it in your Audio/Video/Pictures sections automatically. Just like how it would work on a normal Desktop PC except you'd have front end software which would likely streamline it a bit more for you.

01-17-2012, 11:44 AM

LukeScharf

I'd love a double-DIN Android-based headunit with GPS, and an AM/FM receiver [0] that can run CyanogenMod. Mp3car.com reviewed such a unit recently, but the software on the tablet was out of date -- but, if I could run CyanogenMod on it, I can take responsibility for keeping the software up to date and for the safety/usability of the interface. Also, a single-DIN Android headunit exists, but the screen is too small for what I have in mind, and my Escape has something close to a double-DIN opening.

I've started tinkering with the parts I'll need and testing configurations with a Nook Color on road-trips -- but it's clear that I need to tinker more before I have it right. Paying someone for a pre-built kit might be an attractive option, if it didn't lock me in to a small screen or a an ancient version of Android.

[0] The call phone company's business model and incompatible hardware standards may mean that it's better to be on my own WRT a mobile data plan.

01-22-2012, 12:56 AM

tbonse

Xilinx booth at CES

If you don't know who Xilinx is, then here's a quick rundown, they are a microchip manufacturer specializing in FPGAs.

There were a few vendors in their meeting space booth showing off some very cool prototypes based upon their chips.

The first was an HDTV, which in and of itself is not that surprising, but its refresh rate of 1200Hz on 1080p video certainly is. (That's 20x that of older LCD TVs, 5x faster than that needed for 3D TVs, and 2x as fast as plasma TVs.)

The second was a setup combining the input video streams from 4 separate cameras around an RC car. In real-time, it seamlessly merged the video streams to make a single video with a perceived bird's eye view completely eliminating blind spots around the car. And wouldn't this be the best way when trying to parallel park (even better than the simple backup camera).

Disclaimer:
I do not work for any of the companies listed or referenced and only attended CES as an 'Industry Affiliate'